Chief Executive Officer of Sberbank Herman Gref

MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. Sberbank and its depositors were robbed in 1991 due to "Pavlov" currency reform and the government should compensate these losses, Chief Executive Officer of Sberbank Herman Gref said on Wednesday during the online broadcast in VKontakte social media.

"Sberbank was robbed by absolutely amateurish political of authorities during that period of time. It was robbed together with depositors. Funds were merely taken away from the bank. Both the bank and the depositors suffered. We are on the same side in this sense," Gref said.

The compensation is needed but the government and not the bank should pay it, the banker said. Gref also supported the idea to pay compensation by bank shares.

"I agree with this proposal but the problem is the government and not Sberbank should be the payer. It is even better to compensate by shares to our depositors," the banker said.

In 1991 the USSR implemented the so-called "Pavlov" currency reform named after USSR Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov. Its purpose was to stabilize money circulation in the country.

Exchange of banknotes was accompanied with considerable restrictions. The amount of cash available for withdrawn in the USSR Savings Bank (Sberbank) was limited. Furthermore, deposits with Sberbank were frozen.